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Sustainable Development Frontiers: Is ‘Sustainable’ Cocoa Delivering Development and Reducing Deforestation?

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  • Will Lock
  • Anthony Alexander

Abstract

Forest frontiers are important areas for sustainable development as they combine the need to halt deforestation with the challenges of rural poverty. In the region of San Martín, Peru, the ‘Production, Protection and Inclusion’ model combines narratives of conservation, economic development and social inclusion in what can be defined as a ‘sustainable development frontier’. This article asks how such sustainable development frontiers change social, economic and ecological outcomes in the localities where they are found. The authors examine the reality of sustainable cocoa production linked to conservation and development goals, as promoted by government bodies, international agencies, cooperatives and chocolate brands in Peru, and show how, paradoxically, sustainability goals intensify production and attract smallholders into forest frontier areas. In doing so, the boom in demand for sustainable commodities has inadvertently created conditions encouraging further colonization of forested areas leading to a continuing rise in deforestation, ecological degradation and economic instability. Narratives of sustainable development can thus reinforce commodity intensification, as they obscure alternative approaches and reproduce traditional frontier dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Will Lock & Anthony Alexander, 2023. "Sustainable Development Frontiers: Is ‘Sustainable’ Cocoa Delivering Development and Reducing Deforestation?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 691-713, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:54:y:2023:i:4:p:691-713
    DOI: 10.1111/dech.12781
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Beckert, Sven & Bosma, Ulbe & Schneider, Mindi & Vanhaute, Eric, 2021. "Commodity frontiers and the transformation of the global countryside: a research agenda," Journal of Global History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 435-450, November.
    2. David Levy & Juliane Reinecke & Stephan Manning, 2016. "The Political Dynamics of Sustainable Coffee: Contested Value Regimes and the Transformation of Sustainability," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 364-401, May.
    3. Angus Lyall & Elizabeth Havice, 2019. "The Politics of Development Metrics and Measurement: Impact Evaluations in Fairtrade‐certified Plantation Agriculture," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 50(6), pages 1531-1553, November.
    4. Rasmussen, Mattias Borg & Lund, Christian, 2018. "Reconfiguring Frontier Spaces: The territorialization of resource control," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 388-399.
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